Assassin
An Assassin is someone who kills, or at least attempts to kill a person prominently known to the public. Typology and Motivations of Assassins #''Political ''- They commit their acts (they believe) selflessly, for political reasons. #''Egocentric'' - They have an overwhelming and aggressive egocentric need for acceptance, recognition, and status. They appreciate the consequences of their acts and do not exhibit cognitive distortion characteristic of delusions or psychoses. Such assassins seek attention, which they feel they have been denied, seek to place a burden on those they feel have denied or rejected them and seek to make their mark on history. #''Psychopathic'' - They are unable to relate to others, and are emotional cripples who direct their perverse rage at popular political figures. Their motives are highly personal: they want to end their own lives in the most outrageous display of nihilistic contempt possible for a society they hate. They transfer resentment for their emotional deprivation in childhood to public figures. #''Insane'' - They have documented histories of organic psychosis, a type of mental illness caused by psychological factors either environmentally or genetically induced. They exhibit severe emotional and cognitive distortion of reality, such as paranoia, one characteristic of which might be delusions of grandeur. #''Atypical'' - They defy classification. Assassin Personalities ".]] "Assassin Personality" is a term coined by famed FBI profiler John Douglas, along with his Investigative Support Unit (ISU), and Secret Service behavioral expert Ken Baker, as part of a joint project to study assassinations. It refers to both classic assassins (e.g. Arthur Bremer, Lynette Fromme...), who target just one, famous victim, and other offenders (e.g. serial killers, spree killers, and mass murderers) who, despite not quite acting like classic assassins, fit the latters' mold. Examples of multiple murderers who were deemed "assassin personalities" include: Andrew Cunanan, Charles Whitman, David Berkowitz, James Huberty, Joseph Paul Franklin, and the Tylenol Killer. Most assassin personalities come from a troubled childhood, and tend to be white male loners in their twenties, with self-esteem problems. They also tend to be "functional paranoiacs", meaning they are not psychotics (such as paranoid schizophrenics), but rather their paranoia can be described as a highly organized delusional system. Sometimes this delusional system is based on something that's true (e.g. a political cause), though there's no correlation between that "something" and the action taken to deal with it. The "cause", in most cases, is just a masquerade to justify violent behavior, which they see as a solution to their problems. In order to compensate for their inadequacy, assassin personalities are usually attracted by groups and charismatic personalities, and have military and/or guns fetishes. Since they usually don't have friends and trusted confidants, they are prone to express theirself through journals, in which they detail every aspect of their living, real or perceived slights done to them, conspiracies against them, and plans on what to do about the latters. Precisely because they are more interested in killing their targets and/or acquiring fame and notoriety, than in having a physical contact with their victims (which puts them in stark contrast with most sexual serial offenders), assassin personalities tend to employ firearms (or other undirect means) in their attacks, as they represent a more practical way to kill. An example of assassin personality in the show is clearly represented by The Hollow Man, from "The Last Word": an unnamed frustrated individual who killed prostitutes not because of a sexual compulsion, but merely in order to acquire infamy. On Criminal Minds Assassins on the show: *Season One **Maggie Lowe ("Somebody's Watching") - A stalker and serial-turned-spree killer who began executing everyone perceived to be a threat to the career of Lila Archer, whom she had a delusional obsession for. (Insane) *Season Three **New York Terrorist Cell ("Lo-Fi" and "Mayhem") - A terrorist group who enacted an elaborate scheme to kill an unspecified but high-ranking politician by infiltrating the hospital he was being treated in, and blowing it up. (Political) *Season Seven **Trevor Mills ("A Thin Line") - A family annihilator, abductor, and serial-turned-spree killer, who in a last-ditch effort to ensure Clark Preston's victory in a mayoral election, tried to kill opposing candidate Hilary Ross, and likely would have tried an attempt on the life of the town's current mayor had he not been killed. (Political) **Izzy Rogers ("Hit" and "Run") - A symphorophilic, anarchistic, and international serial killer, thrill killer, terrorist, bank robber, serial bomber, cop killer, mass murderer, abductor who assassinated at least one politician, an ambassador, and it is presumed she also killed other similar victims. (Unknown type) Real World *Andrew Cunanan - Assassinated Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace. (Psychopatic) *Arthur Bremer - Attempted to assassinate President and Governor of Alabama , severely wounding the latter. (Psychopathic) *Charles Guiteau - Assassinated President James A. Garfield. (Insane) *Dan White - Assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. (Atypical) *Evan Spencer Ebel - Assassinated Tom Clements, head of the Colorado Department of Corrections. (Atypical) *James Earl Ray - Assassinated civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King. (Atypical) *Jared Lee Loughner - Attempted to assassinate U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and committed a mass murder. (Insane) *John Hinckley, Jr. - Assassinated White House Press Secretary James Brady and attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. (Psychopathic) *John Wilkes Booth - Assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. (Political) *Joseph Paul Franklin - Attempted to assassinate Jewish lobbyist Morris J. Amitay, magazine publisher Larry Flynt, and civil rights activists Julian Bond and Vernon Jordan Jr. (Political) *Lee Harvey Oswald - Assassinated President John F. Kennedy. (Egocentric) *Leon Czolgosz - Assassinated President William McKinley. (Political) *Lynette Fromme - Attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford. (Egocentric) *Mark David Chapman - Assassinated British musician John Lennon. (Psychopath) *Robert John Bardo - Assassinated actress Rebecca Schaeffer. (Psychopath) *Sirhan Sirhan - Assassinated New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy. (Political) Category:Criminal Pathology Category:Homicidal Terminology